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 When you see the world through your mind, you see a separate and divided up world.
There's "me" and there's everything else that's "not me." A scary place to live because you feel so alone, isolated, and vulnerable. There's this sense that we want to be whole again, and thus the search to fill the void takes over our lives.
What we eventually discover is that nothing "outside" us satisfies for long. The relationships, money, possessions, accomplishments, etc. that our mind had us convinced was going to make us happy simply doesn't. At this point, seemingly out of options, we may begin to look in the one place we haven't really explored: our own true nature.
Who or what is this "me" that I take myself to be?
Am I really these thoughts, feelings and sensations that I experience from moment to moment? Either you are or you aren't. But you won't know for sure until YOU get in there and take a good, hard, long look and get all your questions answered.
And you do this by asking questions, such as:
"What is stable and unchanging, since whatever I am is never not here!?"
"What is always here, but is not a thought, feeling, sensation, or emotion since those things (forms) are constantly coming and going, i.e., changing?"
Could it be that there has been something here, quietly sitting in the background, that has ALWAYS been here, but was simply overlooked because you were so focused on the thoughts in your mind? Like right now as you read this web page, you may have only consciously noticed these white words and didn't even notice the black background these words are appearing on until I just drew your attention to it.
Likewise, when this still spaciousness that is always present is seen/sensed/felt, this changeless background from which life arises from, the journey of exploring one's true nature can actually begin. New questions can begin to arise such as, "Does spacious Awareness care if my car payment is on time, or if so and so likes me or not?" No, it doesn't. Only the illusory "I" cares about such things. But once it is clearly seen that is not who we are, then suddenly the reactive energy that once had us feeling like a pinball being knocked around by life suddenly loses its power over us.
You begin to experience life not as a separate "I" with all of it's problems, but as the spacious aware presence that is your true nature. And when you do this, it's possible to notice that everything is simply an expression of "this" (and what "this" is we cannot say, because words take us away from it since they are concepts), and you ARE that.
We live in a world of duality, meaning twos or opposites (as in one could not exist without the other): hot cold, up down, good bad, etc. Non-duality means not two, as in only ONE. For example, imagine if God (Spirit, Source, The Creator, -- choose whatever word you like) were an unlimited supply of green clay. Thus, She could make any object She wanted from the clay -- birds, trees, elephants, people, mountains, etc., but it would all be from the same "stuff." So, if the lion were to walk up to the ant and say, "I'm obviously better than you." The ant could rightfully say, "It's true that our forms are different, but we were formed from the exact same clay." Thus, the number of different appearances that form can take is unlimited. But ALL come from the ONE source.
Is the color green better than the color blue, or is it just a different?
Is a banana better than an onion or is it just different?
Is a daisy really any better than a cactus, or is it just different?
Look around you without the mind's preconceived judgments, and you see that nothing is "right" or "wrong"... it just IS. And it is YOUR resistance to what IS that causes suffering. Why must you have a problem with anything? So what if someone says or believes something different than you? What does it matter? It's just a different perspective or "take" on the whole. It's their point-of-view (and it's helpful to remember that you would have the exact same point-of-view if you had their conditioning!).
Why reject anything when it's ALL you anyway? The ocean doesn't love one wave more than another. Each wave is simply a different expression of the same exact ocean. Therefore, even the belief that you feel separate or less than or depressed is YOU! Everything you think, touch, taste, smell, hear and see is you as that form. Nothing is not you so nothing needs to be rejected! But you must see and experience this directly for yourself. How? By turning your attention inward.
Most of the time our attention is directed outwards, and so that's where we tend to look for that "thing" that is going to give us the peace, fulfillment and wholeness we all seek.
But as you've no doubt noticed, everything outside of us is constantly changing and temporary, and thus ultimately fails to resolve the feeling of disconnection. The answer is to look inward. What is it in you right NOW, as you read these words, that is AWARE that you exist? The "I AM" prior to all labels. Investigate this. Stay with it. Don't stop looking. Eventually, you will come to see that which cannot be known by the mind, but contains the mind and everything else you experience. Pure silent awareness. That is what you are.
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Who are you? This is the most auspicious question that can present itself. Don't walk away from it. -Mooji
You are that which remains unaltered by all that comes and goes. -Mooji
The mind deals and operates exclusively in the realm of thought. Since "you" are not a thought, the mind cannot know "you."
-Michael Jeffreys
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If the time spent thinking about objects not the self were spent inquiring into the Self, Self realization would be achieved in a very short time. - Ramana Maharshi
By knowing what you are not, you come to know yourself. - Sri Nisargadatta
Fear
arises through identification with form, whether it be a material
possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or
an emotion. -Eckhart Tolle
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